Kirsten Flagstad - Recordings

Recordings

Of her many recordings, the complete Tristan und Isolde with Furtwängler is considered the finest representation of her interpretive art in its maturity. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest recordings of all time. Throughout her career she recorded numerous songs, by Grieg and others, and these are evidence of a voice that maintained its stable beauty during her many years in the limelight. A comprehensive survey of her recordings was released in several volumes on the Simax label.

Her pre-war recordings, which show her voice in its freshest brilliance and clarity, include studio recordings of Wagner arias, Beethoven arias, and Grieg songs, as well as duets from Lohengrin, Parsifal, and Tristan und Isolde with Lauritz Melchior. These have been (and probably still are) available on RCA/BMG CDs, as well as on good CD transfers from the Naxos, Preiser and Romophone companies.

Many Metropolitan Opera broadcasts also survive and have circulated among collectors and more recently on CD. These include:

• Die Walküre, Act I and fragments from Act II from her 1935 début broadcast; 1937 (as Sieglinde); 1940.
• Tristan und Isolde, performances from 1935, 1937, and 1940 all readily available.
• Tannhäuser: 1936, with Melchior and Tibbett, 1939, and 1941 (the latter having an official release on Metropolitan Opera LPs).
• Siegfried: 1937, with Lauritz Melchior and Friedrich Schorr (available on Naxos and Guild labels).
• Lohengrin: 1937, with René Maison
• Fidelio: 1941 with Bruno Walter (available on Naxos)
• Alceste: 1952 (available on Walhall)

After World War II, many important studio recordings followed including:

• Wagner Scenes including the final duet from Siegfried (Testament CDs, licensed from EMI)
• Götterdämmerung: Final Scene, with Furtwängler - EMI
• Tristan und Isolde: Complete opera with Furtwängler - EMI
• Norwegian Songs: EMI
• Götterdämmerung: with Fjeldstad and Bjoner and Set Svanholm. 1956 - Urania and Walhall.
• Der Ring des Nibelungen: Gebhard. From Teatro alla Scala with Furtwängler, Lorenz, Svanholm, Frantz. 1950

Perhaps her most famous operatic recording is the 1952 Tristan with Furtwängler, which has never been out of print. It is available from EMI and Naxos, among others. Another Tristan of note is the live performance from the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), with Viorica Ursuleac as Brangäne, Set Svanholm as Tristan, Hans Hotter as Kurvenal, conducted by Erich Kleiber.

Two live concerts are of particular historical significance:

• Four Last Songs (Richard Strauss, world premiere), with excerpts from ‘’Tristan and Isolde’’ and ‘’Gotterdammerung’’, (Philharmonia Orchestra, cond. Wilhelm Furtwängler), London 22 May 1950. (Testament)
• Carnegie Hall American farewell concert (Symphony of the Air, cond. McArthur), 20 March 1955. (Includes Die Walküre Act I excerpts; Götterdämmerung final scene, Tristan Liebestod, and Wesendonck Lieder (orchestral version).) (World Records LP T-366-7.)

• Flagstad's celebrated 1951 appearance at the Mermaid Theatre, London in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas is represented by a cast recording in which the Mermaid Belinda (Maggie Teyte) was replaced by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, but under the original direction of Geraint Jones. (HMV ALP 1026, EMG review January 1953). A live performance with Teyte is available on the Walhall label.
• The Alceste (original Italian version edited by Geraint Jones) in which she also made a farewell was recorded with Raoul Jobin, Alexander Young, Marion Lowe, Thomas Hemsley, Joan Clark, Rosemary Thayer, Geraint Jones Orchestra and singers, Geraint Jones (Decca LP LXT 5273-5276;. c. 1952)

In 1956, she moved to Decca where in the autumn of her career further important studio recordings followed:

• Several albums of Grieg, Sibelius, Brahms, etc., with orchestra and piano
• Wagner arias with Knappertsbusch (stereo)
• Acts I and III of Die Walküre (as Sieglinde and Brünnhilde respectively) as well as the Brünnhilde/Siegmund duet from Act II (these conducted variously by Knappertsbusch and Solti, as a sort of preparation for Decca's complete Ring project).
• Her great valedictory as Fricka in the Decca Rheingold of 1958.

Almost to the end of her life, Flagstad continued to sing in fine voice, although she increasingly sang mezzo-soprano material or in a mezzo range: besides the Rheingold Fricka (a mezzo role), Decca planned to cast her also as the Walkure Fricka and the Gotterdammerung Waltraute for its complete Ring (in the event, the roles were sung by others), and also to record her in Brahms’ Four Serious Songs and Alto Rhapsody; that these plans were shelved only by her final illness and death stands as a testament to her superbly consistent vocal abilities, and to the respect and affection in which she was held to the end by record companies and the public.